Match Report
Another rare hot sunny London day saw The Plough host an undermanned Southbank CC at DSG in what was hoping to be the club’s second win of the weekend. The opposition were a great bunch of blokes and played a clever brand of cricket the whole day. Si Carson did well to win the toss and bat, allowing for any late comers (yours truly for one) to eventually arrive at the ground and not miss any of the action! Things did not go well for Plough, and with some tight bowling from Southbank, we got off to a very slow start. The pitch was doing plenty and it was a tricky track to bat on. After facing a few balls, Steve Britto unfortunately retired hurt due to a ginger back that did not look good at all. Tom ‘Chadders’ Lonnen continued on with his strong all round form this season and was only one of two Ploughman in double figures finishing with 32 before being bowled. The gorgeous Matthew Spencer took flight next notching up his first half century with 58 crucial runs, which was even more special given he did it whilst nursing the filthiest of hangovers. Niraj Tailor was a notable fill in for the opposition, and he bowled very well to snare 3/23 off 5 on the day. Club great Steve Britto returned to the crease which was a relief for the Plough, and looked dangerous hitting two quick successive boundaries before going down town on the next delivery and being caught by a man on the run about a shoe length within the boundary for an absolute screamer of a catch off the bowling of Niraj. This summed up the day for the Plough as the bottom 6 batsmen went for 14 runs collectively and a grand total of 132 on the board after only 33 overs.
Lunch was the standard all you can eat buffet at Dulwich, with the mini Pork Pies and Original McCoys Potato Chips being the highlights. Plough battled all day with the ball after an aggressive start by Southbank CC. Kesh and myself opened the bowling and finished with 0/19 and 2/36 respectively. Kesh had a tidy line and looked very solid. I had a few early break throughs including finding an edge that Lonnen easily gobbled up in the slips for his first of two catches, but unravelled towards the end of my spell and still trying to straighten my radar to bowl on the stumps, something to work on! Everyone’s favourite male model Matt Spencer got off to a good start and unlucky not to pick up a scalp with a few Southbank shots narrowly missing fielders finishing with 0/24. Lonnen worked hard in the heat cramping up the batsmen for 2/17 including the prized wicket of the evergreen Niraj Tailor for a duck. Uncle Nigel Stevenson was up to his usual antics picking up another 2 wickets with 2/39 also. Special mention to Harry Davies who claimed two key catches out there, all with a tear in his shoulder. The end result was Southbank easily mowing down Plough’s meagre score in under 20 overs with 6 wickets down. We all agree that it might have been a close one had Plough batted out the allotted overs and added another 30-40 runs.
Onwards and upwards to next weekend lads, a tough day at the office but will no doubt put in a stronger collective performance the next time we play these guys. None the less a cracking day out with some ripping folks at the club. Cheers to Freddie, Koby Britto, the Parks clan, the Lonnen Clan and Harry’s ‘good friend’ for coming down to support and have a good yarn in the sun also.
Silva
